


The Night Before

by hops



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Flirting, self-conscious barry, spoilers for ep 65
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 15:56:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11211342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hops/pseuds/hops
Summary: (BIG OL SPOILERS for episode 65!)On the night before their unceremonious liching ceremony, Barry expresses his fears of what might go wrong.





	The Night Before

Barry was unusually quiet.  

He and Lup had decided that tomorrow would be the day. Nearly 83 years had led up to this. 83 years of tireless work, of friendship, then love, of outrunning the Hunger, of dying and coming back and dying again. One could only die so many times before they knew that their methods weren't working.  

Every cycle felt closer to the last. 82 cycles felt like borrowed time to begin with. An extra lifetime that just kept giving. It didn't bother Lup so much, but Barry... every year he seemed to worry, with increasing intensity each time, about where their journey would end. About when the Hunger might finally catch them and devour them into its inky blackness like all the rest of the worlds they had been to.  

And so, they resolved to turn themselves into weapons as what felt like a last resort. All that research, all that time spent honing their arcane abilities... it couldn't be for nothing. Tomorrow they'd commit fully to the arcane arts they'd spent years honing and become liches. To Barry the prospect was, in a word, terrifying. 

In the weeks prior, when they decided to put this plan that had only been just that, a  _plan,_ into action, they mulled over their options for anchors. Of course, they had each other. They had all the small, passing moments of their falling in love that had been sealed to their memory, and they had the big ones, too. Barry carried the memory of her hand in his at the Legato Conservatory in the centermost chamber of his heart. But Lup feared that these alone weren't enough. So, they'd set out on having the best days they could possibly have, with each other and with the rest of the Star Blaster crew.  

Lup had, really and truly, the best two days of her life. First with Barry, and then with Taako. But still, Barry worried for her. For them both, really. What if it wasn't enough? What if something went  _wrong?_  

"You're awfully quiet, Barry." Lup pulled him from his thoughts, slinking into bed next to him with a tiny, reassuring smile. "Do you want to talk?"  

He placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. "Nah, we should get some sleep."  

Lup settled down against his shoulder and slid her hand into his, stroking her thumb along the heel of his hand, then along the side of his own thumb. "You're nervous."  

He laughed in spite of himself. "Well, yeah. Can't help that."  

"We've got this. We've spent so much time preparing... It's going to be fine. I promise."  

Barry couldn't help the tears that formed at the corners of his eyes. "Uh... Lup?"  

She propped her chin up on his arm to look up into his eyes. "Yeah, Barold?"  

"I, uh..." He shook his head a little, swallowing a ghost of a laugh. She made it hard to be serious, sometimes. "I'm really scared."  

A single tear made a run from his eye and down his cheek, to where Lup caught it with a slender finger. "Barry..." She whispered. A smile touched her lips. "It's okay to be scared. I'm scared too, but really, we're going to be okay. This is going to work. We have to believe that it will, without a doubt."  

"I know that you can do it. But I don’t know if I can."  

Lup hesitated, placing her hand down on his chest and looking away. "Do you not think... Did we do enough to anchor you?"  

"No! No, no. No, we—we did enough, more than enough. I think I could have anchored myself with our memories even without any preparation." He reached up to play with her hair. "I just... I don't know if I'm powerful enough, I guess, and I'm just afraid that it either won't work or... Or..."  

"Or it'll only work for one of us."  

He sighed. "Yeah."  

Barry was afraid of leaving Lup alone. Although he knew that she had her brother, and the rest of the crew, to hold her up, the decades they spent together had made it near impossible to imagine life without the other right by their side. And while Barry knew that Lup could do any magic, even the most powerful imaginable, with ease, he was afraid of what would happen if he were to succeed, and Lup were to fail. Barry was, at his core, terrified of what it meant to be alone again.  

Lup reached up and wiped a few more tears that had fallen without him noticing.  

"We know what we're doing. We've studied, we've worked so hard, and Barry? I know you think I'm strong, and hey, you're not wrong about that." She smirked, mostly to herself. "But you're strong too. The power you've cultivated, it's truly... astounding. And now it's our time to use it. Like you said, we never know which cycle will be the last."  

He nodded securely. "I know."  

"We're going to make it. We're ready for this. We're going to be fine." She paused, scooting up so she was level with his face. "And if I'm not? I'll stay in my spectral form and follow you around for the rest of your days. I know that ass anywhere."  

He laughed, this time from his stomach. Lup took his glasses off so he could wipe his face.  

"And I'd do the same for you, Lu."  

She kissed him, gentle and sweet, and then with a bit more strength.  

"Well, you're going to be the best looking lich out there, at least."  

"Only second to you." Barry felt a devious smile flash across her lips against his before she spoke again. "Now, maybe we should give our forms one last thing to anchor to before we turn, hm?"  


End file.
